F1: The Making of a Racing God

The familiar Iron Man appeared in the interview area in Chapter 84.
This stop wasn't just slow for the Little Red Bull; the Big Red Bull wasn't much faster overall either.

Besides the numerous low- and medium-speed corners that further exposed the weaknesses of the car's chassis and suspension, on a track like Bahrain that requires low drag and emphasizes top speed, Red Bull's overly aggressive aerodynamic layout made the car extremely sensitive to sudden changes in wind direction on the track.

Especially at the exit of Turn 13, which faces the sea, a sudden crosswind can easily cause Red Bull's cars to lose rear wheel grip instantly.

Some are happy and some are sad.

Ferrari was all smiles at this race. The dominance they showed during the winter testing at the Circuit de Catalunya had finally been fully revealed.

Despite the fact that the curly-haired coach Binotto, sporting a head full of cauliflower-like hair, stated on camera that they had only slightly increased the engine power compared to other teams during practice.

But the results of the last three training sessions showed that Leclerc, who had the fastest lap time, was 0.2 seconds faster than Vettel, who was second, and at least 0.5 seconds faster than Hamilton, who was third!
After the previous race, there were already rumors circulating in the paddock that the reason Ferrari had such a big gap with Mercedes at Albert Park was not only because their car tuning was not quite right, but also because their engine cooling system seemed to have some problems. Binotto's choice was to limit some of the engine power.

Upon hearing this, Shu Long felt tears streaming down his face.

This year can be considered a trial and error year for the Red Bull system. Even the Red Bull team didn't have much hope of competing for the championship after switching to Honda engines. The first year was mainly about allowing Honda to improve and enhance its engine capabilities.

But if you use ranked mode with the engine at full power and still can't beat someone with a speed-limited, half-finished car, that's a bit frustrating.
Verstappen couldn't beat Vettel, and Shu Long tried his best to find a new way but still couldn't get past Lock & Lock. It was a complete failure for the Red Bull system.

Of course, that's nothing compared to what happened after the qualifying race on Saturday evening. They realized what it meant for life to be full of ups and downs.

This stop was even worse!
Mercedes' two cars were never going to be able to outrun them anyway, so let's not even talk about them.

Leclerc, who was complaining with Verstappen and Shu Long about how unstoppable and abnormal the Mercedes car was after qualifying at the last race, completely betrayed his class at this race, leading his four-time champion teammate by 0.2 and 0.3 points throughout the race, and directly becoming a strong contender for pole position.

Then Leclerc actually won pole position by nearly 0.3 points over his teammate.

Although he was a little disappointed, Verstappen, who consistently kept his lap times behind Mercedes and Ferrari, actually felt alright.

After all, Red Bull often couldn't outrun these two teams last year, so they're just back in their familiar territory now.

But for Shulong, this result is extremely difficult to accept!

After three qualifying rounds, his final ranking was only P9.
Because the overall strategy for the race is more focused on the long race distance, most teams are trying to save as many new yellow tires as possible, with most having only four sets of new red tires available before qualifying.

Similar to its usual strategy, Shulong, confident that it could secure a spot in Q3, only used a new red set and completed two flight loops in Q1.

The first time, I didn't time my entry well after warming up the tires, and I encountered a long line of cars waiting for the window at turn 15 before entering the flight circle. In the end, I only managed to get a low-altitude drift past P13 with my old red car, which was my personal fastest.

Many players encountered the same problem in the first qualifying round, resulting in chaos in the mid-table.

Norris was in P4 at the end of the first quarter, while Verstappen of the Red Bulls fell to P9, Gasly was in an even worse position at P15, and Giovinazzi, who almost lost to Sauber, was eliminated in Q1.

In contrast, Albon, who was the least favored before the competition, made a glorious advancement in Q1 with a P6 score.

Such a result is completely unreliable, which led Shu Long to underestimate his opponents at the beginning. He seemed to have underestimated the competitiveness of other teams in this race.

In Q2, his strategy remained the same: he planned to make only one flight loop, and in order to control his score, he didn't push too hard.

This way, he will have a better starting tire condition than others in the race, and he can also save a new set of red tires to help him improve his ranking in Q3.

With Ferrari resolving their engine issues, the two customer teams naturally benefited as well.

Considering that one player from Arro has already been eliminated, according to Shu Long's original plan, even if we were to be cautious and include Gasly who might suddenly have a breakout performance, his lap time of 1:29.491 should be enough to get into Q3, right?
As it turned out, it wasn't just the Haas duo and Arroy's veteran driver who were fast this race; with Sainz quickly adapting to the driving characteristics of the new team's car, the two McLaren cars also achieved incredible speeds this race.

Renault, being a factory team player, was naturally not to be outdone. Ricardo suddenly appeared halfway through the game, squeezing Shulong into P12.

Is this still available?

为了确保能稳定进入Q3，保险起见车组又给束龙开了一套新红，踩着Q2结束的边边刷出一个1：29.133把原本P10晋级的诺里斯给残忍地挤了出去。

That was close! We almost messed up!
However, this meant that Shulong had one less set of new tires to spare compared to the others who entered Q3. He first used the old red tires from Q2 to set a valid lap time, and only got a new set of red tires in the second round of flying laps.

Despite having a 0.09 lead over Magnussen in P6 after the first two greens, he was unlucky at the end. A crosswind slapped him in the face at Turn 13, sending him back to P9 and leaving Raikkonen and Grosjean sandwiched in the middle.

Shu Long was extremely annoyed.

His last lap was actually quite perfect. If he had finished, he could not only have overtaken Magnussen, but he might even have knocked out Verstappen!

Red Bull did struggle more at this race. Gasly tried his best in Q2 but was still eliminated in P14, once again failing to beat Albon in P13.

Haas is really fast. Magnussen was only 0.05 away from surpassing Verstappen to reach P5.

But there are no "what ifs" in life. He actually handled the situation quite well when he encountered that hostile wind.

When faced with a sudden increase in crosswinds, Shulong did not instinctively ease off the accelerator to slow down.

When faced with uncertainty and situations beyond our control, we choose to retreat. This is a survival secret that humans have kept at bay since ancient times, and it has long become an instinct deeply ingrained in our genes. Yet, Shulong managed to overcome this instinct in a very short time.

Instead of easing off the accelerator, he went the opposite way, flooring the gas pedal to forcefully shift his weight backward and stabilize the rear of the race car.

However, this resulted in excessive wheel spin due to insufficient downforce at the rear, inevitably leading to a loss of lap time.

The commentators and viewers were unaware of the specific details of what happened. They could only see from the replay that Shu Long made a spectacular drift at Turn 13, and they assumed that he made a mistake there, which was a bit of a pity.

Then came the vehement condemnation of the team. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that Red Bull's four cars were generally uncompetitive in this race; whether it was the cars or the drivers who were incompetent was clear.

Even with the mistake at Turn 13, it's an undeniable fact that Shulong's fastest lap was more than 0.5 seconds faster than Albon's. If any car had the competitiveness of Haas, this result would never have been possible today.

Once their fanatical emotions take hold, they don't care about anything else and just start cursing!
As they talked, the content naturally became more and more outrageous. They even made up things like Ferrari's engine foundation is so good that if Shu Long were driving it, it might be able to beat Mercedes and take third place.

Shu Long was unaware of any of this, but his mother's studio, which was specifically set up to guide public opinion, immediately reacted.

What does it mean for idols to be held accountable for their fans' actions?

These next two years are crucial in determining whether Shu Long can advance from a junior Red Bull team to a major Red Bull team. It would be interesting if Shu Long himself didn't intend to do so, and the fans and enthusiasts caused a rift between him and the team.

Zhou Guanyu and Ferrari's youth training program serve as cautionary tales!
First, they contacted the team and extracted the TR segment explaining the reason separately. Then, they added several photos of Shulong chatting happily with the engineer next to him, as well as a handsome photo of him sitting in the race car with a sharp expression. They quickly wrote a positive message to encourage fans to give their support.

This is an initial statement. The rest is to have the big fan leaders they've cultivated guide the narrative in various groups, gradually defusing the emotions and the impact.

After all, we're still operating on someone else's turf and following their rules, so at first we can only try to adapt and integrate.

Don't you see that even Sun Wukong, who insisted on living in his own destiny, was imprisoned under a mountain for five hundred years? Those who only know how to blindly rush forward are just hotheads. Only when they become truly powerful and have their own voice can they try to rewrite the rules.

As for public opinion, unless Shu Long himself is driven by curiosity to seek it out on his own, his home is generally his strongest shield, doing his best to isolate him from everything.

The best way for public figures to extricate themselves from the influence of public opinion is not to get involved. The person driving should just focus on driving, and other things can be taken care of by others. Otherwise, wouldn't all the salary Zhang Xin receives every year be wasted?

Shu Long's low spirits had nothing to do with the messy things off the field. It was just that this was only his third game in his career, and it seemed that he would miss the podium again.

From frugality to luxury is easy, from luxury to frugality.

Making it to the podium in his first appearance has already raised Shu Long's expectations to an extremely high level. Even now, as a driver for a mid-table team, he feels uncomfortable if his goal in every race is not to reach the podium.

After completing the weighing as usual, Shu Long absentmindedly went over his lines with the press officer while numbly walking towards the interview area. He was inexplicably led to a man who was a head shorter than him and wearing a baseball cap.

"Hey? I don't know if I should congratulate you, but how does it feel to get a P9 in ranked?"

Shu Long, who had been somewhat absent-minded, suddenly became enraged.

Which reporter is this who doesn't know how to speak properly? Are they just picking on people's sore spots?
Just as Shu Long frowned, he suddenly noticed that the atmosphere around him seemed a little subtle. The reporters in the interview positions next to him stopped asking questions and, along with the drivers, all turned their attention to him, watching the drama unfold.

Stiffly craning my neck and looking down slightly, I saw that the man holding the microphone had most of his face hidden by a baseball cap, but his broad chin covered in a thick beard looked strangely familiar.
[Language proficiency] allowed Shu Long to understand the other person's question without any effort. Now, thinking back on it carefully, the person's English accent seemed to be unusually heavy, and it felt like the person was saying the whole sentence with a rolled "r".

"Alonso?!"

Yes, who else could it be but Alan Tam, who just retired and left F1?

I never imagined that just last time I paid homage to my opponent's signature move in a ranked match, I would now be interviewed by the real person holding a microphone.

Stammering and not even knowing what he was saying, Shu Long had only one thought in his mind—could Zhou Guanyu's idol have come specifically for him? And wouldn't he be charging that racing team copyright fees?

Obviously not.

Seemingly sensing Shu Long's doubts, Alonso simply put aside his guest interview duties and pulled Shu Long aside to find a small table for a proper chat.

First of all, Alonso's return to the paddock this time was not specifically for the race; after this race, Alonso will be responsible for helping to test McLaren's car.

Having raced for so many years and played for several teams, Alonso can certainly be considered a McLaren legend.

He has dedicated so many years of his life to F1, and it's not something he can just let go of. Even now, Alonso still has close ties with at least two teams.

However, he did deliberately act strangely as a guest reporter this time specifically for Shulong.

Alonso had been watching the entire last race closely and now genuinely admires this young Eastern driver.

Previously, Alonso and Shu Long had not had much interaction. After all, with such a large age gap, even if Shu Long wanted to take the initiative to chat with Alonso, he didn't know how to start.

However, Alonso and Zhou Guanyu are quite familiar with each other. Back when Guanyu joined Ferrari's youth training program, Alonso was still a Ferrari driver. Successfully meeting a star by chance is a beautiful story anywhere.

Also, because of Zhou Guanyu, when Shu Long first appeared in the first training session of the Japanese Grand Prix, Alonso was one of the few people who took the initiative to greet him.

Unfortunately, the person was too reserved in front of strangers, which resulted in the two of them not exchanging more than a few proper words throughout the entire conversation.

Of course, Alonso's appreciation for Shu Long is not simply because the other party can replicate the track legends of that era on the current car, nor is it related to Zhou Guanyu. The main reason is that he seems to be able to see some characteristics of drivers from their era in Shu Long.

That quality is called doing the impossible, and having the talent and creativity to create miracles.

As people get older, they tend to reminisce about the past. Among the younger generation of drivers, he has only seen this feeling in two people: Verstappen from Brazil in 16 and Shu Long in front of him.

After recounting some unknown stories from the past, Alonso wore a complex smile. He pinched Shulong's face, which was somewhat delicate compared to Westerners, and said nothing more, yet everything was understood without words. He then gave a self-deprecating laugh and turned to leave.

　Thank you to Xiaoqu12, Book Friend 2019121619424384, and Wǒメ不怕输 for your monthly ticket donations!
　　Thank you so much to the generous donor, "Awake and Dreaming 739"!
　　I said I'd write two more chapters, but writing even one is killing me. I've been so lazy, even the slightest movement feels like I'm falling apart. My whole body aches, and I can't even sit still.

　　We still owe 12-1=11. We'll continue tomorrow!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)